Computing Social Change and Sustainability in the Martian Chronicles

Literature has long served as a powerful medium for reflecting and influencing social, economic and environmental change. Science fiction as literary genre serves as a critique on unsustainable practices as well as envisions alternative futures. In the array of SF writers, Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Martian Chronicles’ (1950) is not merely a work of speculative fiction but a literary precursor to contemporary sustainability debates. By investigating this novel about human hubris, this research paper aims to highlight how efforts of sustainability fail leading to environmental degradation, resource exploitation and cultural erasure through post-colonial ecocritical lens. UNESCO also distinguishes between a more sustainable world (sustainability conceptualized as a long-term goal) and sustainable development which is a referent of the various processes and pathways to attain it. In the light of the aforesaid, this research paper examines how this novel presents a nuanced critique of humanity’s approach to their home planet, ecological stewardship, ethical responsibilities towards human civilization, disease, the need for preserving forests and rethinking of space colonization policies.